Walter Riabhac Ó Dorchaidhe

Who is Walter Riabhac Ó Dorchaidhe?

Walter Riabhac Ó Dorchaidhe, Irish merchant and founder of the Darcy tribe of Galway, fl. c. 1488.

Walter Riabhac Ó Dorchaidhe was a member of a lowly family who were descendants of the Partraige of Lough Carra, in what is now County Mayo. The Partgaige are not featured in any extant Irish annal or chronicle, and the only record of them in Gaelic sources is a brief note stating that the Uí Dorchaidhe was chieftain of the Partriage, while their king was the Ó Goirmiallaigh.

Adrian James Martyn believes that Walter Riabhach would have settled in Galway sometime in the mid-15th century. Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh states that this Walter Riabhach wasthe first man of the Uí Dorchaidhe who came to Galway, according to the Galweigians themselves. Neither Walter Riabhac nor any of his family feature in an extant city records. Only in the 1570s when his descendant, James Riabhach Darcy, became vice-president of Connacht, do the family appear in extant documentation.

His descendants include:

James Riabhach Darcy, Mayor of Galway, died 1602

Patrick D'Arcy, Irish Confederate, died 1668.

Count Patrick D'Arcy, mathematician and soldier, died 1779.

Other bearers of the name include: